Racing Coverage

DAYTONA BEACH — What little Maurice Jones-Drew knew of NASCAR he learned on the drive Thursday from Jacksonville to the Daytona International Speedway.

By the time the Gatorade Duels were done, he wanted to part of the sport.

"I want to be an owner,” he said. “I think that would be exciting.”

The Jaguars running back was the grand marshal for the second 150-mile qualifying race that set the starting lineup for the Daytona 500. Florida quarterback Tim Tebow gave the command to start engines for the first race.

Jones-Drew had never been to a race. He rode with Jaguars assistant equipment managers – and big NASCAR fans – George Pellicer and Cory Fancher and they tried to get the all-pro up to speed.

“They got Jimmie Johnson’s autograph and they were amped about that,” Jones-Drew said. “This whole thing is unbelievable. It’s amazing how close the fans get to the drivers.”

Jones-Drew believes he’d be a great car owner.

“The key to being a good owner is who you have with you,” he said. “I don’t think any one person can run a race team. You need to have a lot of good people. I would get all the good people I can and I would give them the very best of what they needed. But we’d also have rules. We’d have a way to do things and you’d have to follow that.”

Danica drives tickets

The reaction to IndyCar’s Danica Patrick continues to be both impressive and overwhelming.

“I know this is a bigger stage,” she said after practicing for Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 for the Nationwide Series. “I can’t control how much is out there and what people say, how much they say. That’s not my mission, to be the big story.”

When she decided Monday to make her NASCAR debut at Daytona, the speedway noticed a significant bump in ticket sales for Saturday’s race, speedway president Robin Braig said.

“The Danica effect has been tremendous,” he said. “We’ve seen a big jump. It’s been so big, when people call to buy their Daytona 500 tickets, we remind them that Danica’s going to be here on Saturday and that’s helped us sell even more tickets.”

Patrick held a news conference Thursday and she admitted it was the largest gathering of media she’d ever seen, far more than she attracts at the Indianapolis 500.

She started her stock car career last Saturday with a sixth-place finish in the ARCA Series race at Daytona. She was fifth-fastest in Thursday’s Nationwide practice and already admits to liking stock cars as much as IndyCars.

“I didn’t shy away from saying that I had so much fun last weekend in the ARCA race,” she said. “I’m still enjoying it a lot. The fans have been good. People hae been good. I’m having a blast.

“You know, I can’t deny that I really like driving the car. I can’t deny that it’s really fun racing. I haven’t made any decisions regarding which is my favorite or not. It’s like having two kids; I can’t pick.”